Dilapidated S. Tahoe motel to be resurrected

Trout Creek Motel’s new owner promises upgrades. Photo/LTN

By Kathryn Reed

One of South Lake Tahoe’s rundown hotels on Highway 50 is about to undergo some much-needed rehabilitation.

“By April 30 it will be looking good from the road,” Robert Durward said of the Trout Creek Motel.

He is the new owner of the 11-room lodging facility near the Town and Country Center. Durward also owns the Sky Lake Lodge next door and the El Nido down the road. He has refurbished both.

“My plans are not to tear it down, but have more curb appeal from the street and revamp the whole thing,” Durward told Lake Tahoe News.

The former owner had been cited and fined by the city numerous times for never making any of the improvements to the blighted facility.

Bill Potts, senior housing inspector for South Lake Tahoe, said Durward has promised to do what the former owner never did — remove the sign, rehabilitate the roof, paint the building and remove the foundation that is in the driveway.

In a letter from Durward to the city, he says he also plans to upgrade the rooms.

The three tenants have been given eviction notices. Once the place is renovated, Durward plans to keep it a weekly rental facility. He said it’s too hard to make it a tourist hotel because of the spring and fall shoulder seasons would mean too many nights with no heads in beds.

Durward said if the weekly rentals don’t work, he’ll think about converting the property into apartments.